The work, prompted by two derailments this spring, will close some of the station’s 21 tracks and require a roughly 20 percent reduction in the number of commuter trains coming in from New Jersey and Long Island.

Amtrak also is reducing the number of trains it runs between New York and Washington and diverting some trains from Albany across town to Grand Central Terminal.

It means those traveling to work from Hoboken and Jersey City will notice an increase in crowd numbers at Path stations.

Workers start the massive repair works in Penn Station (Picture: REUTERS)

The works won’t enhance service capacity, unfortunately (Picture: REUTERS)

The station is going to be busier than usual because of the repair works in Manhattan (Picture: AP)

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, said in May that ‘it will be a summer of hell for commuters’. Around the same time, he wrote a letter to President Donald Trump asking for federal help and appealing to Trump’s New York roots.

This spring, two minor derailments at the station caused major headaches.

One, caused by aging ties that allowed a track to split apart, closed eight tracks and disrupted service between Boston and Washington for four days. During a separate hours-long delay caused by a disabled train, police shocked an unruly person with a stun gun, leading to a stampede over fears of a shooting.

The works are in response to a number of derailments earlier this year (Picture: AP)

Workers will fix the tracks but do nothing to increase passenger numbers going forward (Picture: EPA)

Eventually, a new tunnel will have to be built under the Hudson (Picture: AP)

Last Thursday night, there was another minor derailment at the station. No injuries were reported.

Rail commuters will suffer this summer’s overcrowding and reduced service with the knowledge that the repairs won’t add train capacity or eliminate problems like overhead wire failures in the tunnel that cause regular delays.

That won’t happen until the completion of a $12.9billion project to build a new Hudson River tunnel and overhaul the 107-year-old tunnel, damaged by 2012’s Superstorm Sandy.

Amtrak officials have said its two tubes will need to be closed for repairs within the next 15 years, possibly sooner. Without a new tunnel, rail service would be reduced by an estimated 75 percent, from 24 trains to six during peak periods.